Some time had passed since Aurora and her friends had been captured by the Imperials. In orbit around Palanhi two men stood by the view port of the observation deck of an extravagant luxury yacht. One a former dark lord of the Sith by the name of Elias Sinclair, now little more than a puppet for the new CEO. The other was a man dressed in an immaculate suit with his black hair cropped short, the very picture of a professional businessman. They stood in silence watching the planet as the door to the observation deck slid open.

"I see you've failed to recover the asset," Tobias Grimm said as Agent X entered the room.

"There was a Xen'Chi," she explained, it was not an excuse but a statement, "She was particularly skilled."

"I know, and she would have killed you had the Imperials not arrived," Tobias said, turning around. He lifted a remote in his hand and activated a display built into the far wall. An image of the security feed from the cantina appeared on the display.

"The Xen'Chi intrigue me," he continued, "As do the gems they are searching for." That he knew about the gems was no surprise to her. A microtransceiver implanted in her inner ear transmitted everything she heard back to him. "However," he said, "my concern are these mercenaries."

He keyed in a few buttons on the remote and zoomed in on one face in particular. "This one seems to be calling the shots. I want you to track him down and find out who he works for. Then, if necessary, eliminate him and his men."

"As you wish," the woman replied then she spun on her heel and left the room.

Meanwhile Tobias turned back to the display. So far everyone Aurora has encountered has had some kind of record or another. Even Xiel, a former Xen'Chi Chosen, was known to him to some degree. The mercenaries, however, were not and Tobias strongly disliked encountering an unknown...

...Darkness...
...Darkness was life...
...Life was fed by the Darkness...
...Darkness was truth...
...Truth existed in the Darkness...
...Darkness was power...
...Power came from the Darkness...

Xiel sat with her eyes closed a smile adorning her face. She had dealt with this before, dealt with shackles, dealt with Ysalamari and learned to reach beyond their abilities. She focused on her training...on the Darkness within her. Her mind flashed back through memories pulling up the ones she needed most looking back into the past. Back to the days of the ash filled world. Back to the time when she was a prized warrior among her people when even the Overseer knew her by name...

Rise Xiel’ishen, take your place as a warrior…

The words coursed through her veins and she felt pride rising over her. She was rising in the footsteps of her mother, Overseer Nelai, and bore the tattoos of a life born into violence, one that had been survived in the harshest of conditions, under the most intensely violent training ever seen and she had walked out of her trials to become a warrior. She was the hardest, strongest warrior that had been bred in the generations of her bloodline.

She was adorned with the headdress of a Priestess of the Xen'Chi, armed with the srraka blades of a true warrior and wielded the powers of a Chosen. She felt the voice in her head, the one they called GAIT. Three voices becoming one as they taught her in becoming the most power Chosen ever trained.

Xiel pulled herself out of her memory and pulled against her shackles experimentally. They would return soon and she would not be defenseless when they did. Pulling on the Force she felt as if it didn't exist but knew better, she had been trained by the greatest...

Her Master rose out of the puddle of his robes standing to his full height and she could feel his power trying to overwhelm even her own. The Darkness allowed her Master to become its master allowing him to bend it to his every need. Kneeling she bowed her head to her Master. “Master…it is time Master…the galaxy will know of the Darkness my Master…”

Her Master's voice boomed as he spoke, His master allowing him permission to speak. "You wish to show the galaxy your power yet you wish for something else. You wish to be granted your soul Xiel'ishen?"

Smiling to show her black teeth she looked upon her Master, 'Yes, my Master. I wish for you to release me so that I would be granted my soul Master."

"Show me." His voice one of petulant and worthless judgement.

Reaching within herself she found the Darkness and lightning escaped her hands. Launching itself up her forearms, down across the floor and toward her target. Her prey fell, a guard now one with his melted armor. Kneeling once more her hair fell across her face and she breathed knowing that each breath after such a display would either come with her finally being granted her soul or more punishment, more training and more time cut off from that which gave her life.

Looking to his Master her Master finally turned toward her and told her to rise. The room suddenly came alive though she dare not look up even after she stood. She felt her master moving, violence swarming around her yet she did not flinch nor look up. After he stopped she looked up at his command and she saw the cages, saw the blood and dead animals. The Darkness swarmed her and she could feel her soul. She had never felt such power, such life, how powerful the Darkness actually was. She looked around at the fur strewn around the room and looked into her Masters eyes.

"Yes...,' he hissed proudly. "You have been granted your soul Xiel'ishen. You will never be cut off from it again for your training has happened with your soul having been removed."

Her studies had shown her these creatures and she now knew the truth. Ysalamari...

She saw the brilliance and devious nature of her Master all at once. Her anger swelled and suddenly was gone as the Darkness consumed it. She knelt before her Master and knew she had chosen wisely. "I am ready Master..."

Pulling herself out of her memories again Xiel felt the shackles give way never opening her eyes. Each step she took she reached out knowing that only inches were open to her at this very moment. The concentration required was so immense even her eyesight could keep her from being able to touch it. Running her hand over the door she heard noises coming from several other cells and hissed an angry reply. "Shut your fracking mouths or I will gut each of you when I get you out of this!"

Touching the lock she felt it give way and her Master's mantra filled her mind as the door swung inward. Her eyes remained closed, ears alert for guards as she removed her boots and set them in front of Selic's cell before releasing the lock. Stealth would be required and she needed silence to accomplish anything with that creature nearby. Selic would be more adept at dealing with them though she feared the glow stick Forcer would be in a horrible condition. Pushing the worry from her mind she started to recite her Masters mantra again as naturally as counting while she moved toward the twins cell. "I will say this one more time, do not speak more than a few words or I will gut you."

She smiled as she reached out again, hand against the lock and her Master's mantra ran through her head again...

Time seemed to stop for Xiel. It was as if an invisible duracrete wall had suddenly snapped into place out of the ether surrounded her. Her vision slowly faded into darkness, and a mind-numbing combination of fear and pleasure coursed through her spine. This combination of emotions she knew all too well, as it both comforted and sustained her one moment, and then next it crushed her spirit and drained her energies. It was a symphony that rose and fell at its conductor's whim, a conductor that reveled in the twisted emotions that the cascade of pain and pleasure brought.

The Darkness had returned...

"M..M..Master?!?" Was all Xiel could manage as the dark energies coursed up and down her spine like a malicious being running a steel spurred mallet across a xylophone made from molten steel.

--Yes, my most loyal child.-- The voice in her head spoke with a wave of cold that even the absolute zero of space would have been hard pressed to challenge. --You have been my greatest student. My crowning achievement to further my own glory.--

Xiel shuddered, closing her eyes tightly as an erotic wave of cold pleasure ran the course of her body. Tears streamed from her eyes as the ecstasy of pain and pleasure rose and fell at the Master's whim. "I live only to serve your Darkness my Lord! But...but...you, you fell to Freedom..." The sudden pain cut off her questioning statement, like a Rancor chomping on her spine.

--NO ONE MAN CAN DEFEAT...THE DARKNESS!-- The voice raged in anger at her doubt. The unseen Rancor's jaws seemed to suddenly twist and and shake her spine in tune with the voice's rage. --Freedom's seeming defeat of me, was a victory for the Darkness. You can drop a world, or an entire Galaxy upon me, and I shall only rise stronger. Your doubt disappoints me Xiel'ishen.--

The pain eased somewhat as she pleaded with the voice. --I like the way you beg Xiel'ishen. It pleases me to see others of power prostrate themselves before power. But you must atone for your sin, and for that...What was given to you for pleasing your Master, will now be taken away for doubting him...

"NO!! Please Master, anything but that!!" Screamed in anguish, but it was too late. Xiel could feel her soul being torn from her very being. It was as if each layer her flesh was being stripped from her body, one excruciating layer at a time, with a low-powered vibro-blade. "...please...please...forgive me Master....NOOOOOO!"

Xiel writhed in agony for what seemed eons as the last vestige of her soul left her body. Through it all, she could hear and feel the voice's pleasure...no, it was ecstasy...of her pain, it drank her feeble tears like water given to a man that had been wandering the deserts of Tatooine for days.

There was an painfully long pause with the voice, as if it was savoring every last moment of Xiel's torture until there was none left to give. --Now, your atonement shall be to bring to me an object that I shall possess. It is in the possession of the two insects that have brought you to this place. You merely thought that you came here of your own will, but it has been me that has guided you. There is no such thing as 'Fate', there is only my will.

The puzzlement in Xiel momentarily dulled the receding pain and anguish. "But...but they are nothing but insignificant smugglers My...My Lord."

The voice rose in irritation again. --You DARE, to doubt me again?--

"NO!" Xiel cried out and dropped her head to the floor.

--Good, be mindful of your doubts my child. Be mindful of my words, for I shall not repeat them again. These two are...dangerous...the object that they possess is even more so, and yet they do not know of what it is that they have.-- There was a subtle pause in his voice that even Xiel noticed. --These two are not to be taken lightly, nor the young Jedi that is with them. The two have a familial history of being able to subvert the forces of Darkness, though they believe it is only the immature thoughts that 'luck' saved their lives.--

--The artifact is within the confines of the Millennium Falcon, it is an artifact, within an artifact. You will gain both and bring them to me. You will aid them in escaping this prison and gain their friendship and their trust. Once you have both, then you will kill them and bring me both the artifact, and their heads. Only then will I return your soul and believe that you are penitent for your sin of doubt.--

IC: Dar Treskion shifted his weight in a vain attempt to get more comfortable. The space he had to work with was not exactly spacious, but it was ideal for observing the twins without their knowledge. One did not simply make the Millenium Falcon available for theft, to say nothing of the cargo currently inside it, to outsiders without some type of insurance. Although why any of it was entrusted to the pair in the first place was beyond Dar. They were wily, yes, lucky, yes, but otherwise quite amateurish. Still, it was not an intelligence agent's duty to ask why, instead only to perform the mission as assigned.

And right now he was strictly an observer. He wasn't to reveal himself unless absolutely necessary. The twins apparently had an issue with “babysitters” that would have made things more difficult if he had been sent along openly.

Dar listened closely to the earbud he had plugged into his datapad. He had manged to slice into the Imperial com traffic network, though his access was currently set to passively receive only so as to avoid raising any security flags. What he had gleaned from it certainly didn't sound promising and a lesser agent might have taken that as a sign to break cover, but Dar liked to look at all the angles. What the Imperials currently had was a powder keg waiting to go off. He could piece enough com chatter together to realize that containment wasn't going to last very long, judging by some of the skills and personalities on display in that scuffle. The twins would no doubt take advantage of that commotion when it happened to make a break for it.

Unfortunately for them, the lockdown on the Falcon would stop them cold. The old YT-1300 was a powerful ship, but there was no way it was going to break free of the tractor beams currently holding it. Even if they did somehow manage that, Dar doubted they could do it in time before the Imperials scrambled to blockade them. The first thing any smart Imperial commander would do in the event of a breakout would be to send reinforcements to secure the perpetrator's ships from being taken.

And the Falcon was a prize that any Imperial with half a brain would take great care to keep in their possession.

Which was why Dar was also currently in the process of writing an algorithm that would shut down the spaceport the tractor beams with a feedback loop once he sliced it into the system. Tractor controls, while protected, didn't have nearly as stringent protocols as some other, much more sensitive data. He was reasonably confident, after looking them over, that he could bypass them.

Dar sucked on some nutrient paste while he worked. It was not his ideal meal by any stretch of the imagination, but it kept him fed and hydrated, which was more important. With the tractor beam algorithm compiling, he busied himself with trying to dig up information on who exactly these other people in the scuffle were. It always paid to know one's potential allies or enemies...

Ranion sat on his bed, in the sterile confines of the Imperial cell, rubbing the back of his neck and wincing in pain from the bruise there. "Is there a jail that we haven't been in, in this quadrant?"

Mera's head suddenly appeared from the top bunk, peering at him upside-down. "Um, I don't think so. Though, you have to admit that this one is much cleaner than the cells on Lebis Prime."

"Lebisians are mud people Sis, their species consider the moss growth over their private parts as 'clothing'." Ranion wrinkled his nose at the memory.

"Well, I heard the prisons on Loris are actually pretty nice...well...for a prison that is." Mera replied with a nod of the head.

"Aren't you two worried...even slightly...about our current situation?" Aurora looked them irritably, the effect of the Ysalamari obviously taking their toll on her mental state.

"Personally, they are kinda entertaining, in a annoying sort of way." Jerik added. "We could have been stuck in a room full of pissed of Wookies, or those annoying little Jawas."

"Let's not talk about Wookies, shall we?" Ranion grumbled.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Jerik chuckled slightly. "I'm sure the entire world of Kashyyyk is probably out for your hides. I bet I could get more credits from the Wooks than I would from Groola."

"Look Tri-eyes, you're not going to be given a chance to collect from either one of them." Mera snorted. "In case you missed the local news, you're in the same ship as we are now. Imperials can't stand Bounty Hunters. Why, I think they place Bounty Hunters somewhere between a Morian Slub Worm and a Sloth Ant on Deneb. Also, If memory serves, they're not too fond of aliens."

Whatever fate awaited Jerik was far less severe from the fate that awaited Aurora and Selic. The Imperials had a strict policy on how to deal with rogue Forcers and Aurora was certain that Oremin had been contacted and were on their way to pick them up. She had no desire of spending any time in Oremin's prisons but with the Ysalamiri in the room she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do. Xiel had somehow gotten out of her cell but currently the woman was writhing in agony and babbling incoherently to herself. Aurora wasn't sure what worried her more, spending more time with the crazed Xen'Chi or waiting for Oremin.

"What did you guys do to draw so much attention," she asked. There were so many people in the cantina that the sheer quantity of the people pursuing the twins was almost laughable. The last one to arrive, however, was after Aurora though the girl was as of yet unaware of that fact. She had some suspicions, though, considering the woman never made an attempt to land any lethal strikes against her. Then there was the fact that the assassin kicked her out of the way of Talis' shot, though Aurora wasn't currently aware of that due to the trance she was in. That still left a ludicrous amount of people interested in obtaining the twins, however.

She started counting on her fingers. "What is that? Four? Five people looking for you? Is there anyone in this galaxy not looking for you?"

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed.” Mera said and batted her eyes. “I’m really pretty. Everyone after us is a guy except for the Xen’Chi chick, and they could go both ways. You don’t know, I don’t know.” She said. “Look, we’re popular people, minor celebrities in the smuggling community.”

Aurora frowned. “Why?” She asked, with a shake of her head and a questioning gesture.

“Why? Why?” Mera asked rhetorically with a look of surprise on her face and started laughing. She looked over at Ranion. “She’s asking ’Why?’, can you believe this.” Mera said and Ranion started laughing himself. “Oh man, that’s good.” She said. Suddenly they both went quiet and back to their resting faces. “Anyway….”

“You didn’t answer my question.” Aurora said, eyes narrowing.

“We’re popular for smuggly stuff, you wouldn’t know about that kind of stuff, you’re too little.” Mera said, and reached out, lightly booping Aurora on the head.

“You’re not popular in the smuggling community, are you?” She asked.

“No, we aren’t.” Ranion admitted. “We’re very good at what we do, but we fly under the radar. We don’t like attracting attention to ourselves, even though we’re good at it, but we do have a reputation. We will get whatever you want, wherever you want, in the time frame that you need.”

“Provided multiple people aren’t trying to kill you.”

“Hey, kid, get us in the Idiot’s Array, and none of these mooks would catch us.” Mera said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’d catch you.” Jerik said.

“Shut up.” Both of the Twins said at the same time. “That’s only cause you have three eyes. That’s cheating.” Mera said.

Xiel stood after a few moments and placed her hand against the wall. Kormoran's return had her head spinning, his voice had been as if he were standing next to her while she knew it wasn't true. He was alive, his presence was palpable now to her and she knew him better than anyone else in this galaxy. She could feel something wrong with her connection to the Force but at an external level. She reached out to Selic and felt him moving around trying to find their weapons and moved a few objects with the Force which made her more confused. She could no longer feel the Ysalamari yet...that's it. She tried to summon Force lightning and nothing happened, she tried to use the Force in another violent act that was strictly Sith oriented and again, nothing happened. Furrowing her brow she opened her mind and felt as if a hole now existed there. Grimacing she realized what Kormoran had done. He had erased every ounce of knowledge of her knowing anything about how to use the Force in regard to being a Sith. She now had levels upon levels of training for years that meant nothing. She would find a way to restore it or better apply that training in due time but as for now she had a Master to obey.

Sliding her hand over the locking mechanism to the door its latch slid to the open position and she opened the door. The banter inside was approaching annoying levels again and she definitely had no patience for it after Kormoran's visit. The door finished swinging open and she stepped into the room. Looking at everyone she eyed each of them up and Selic popped into the room silently behind her. He had most of their weapons, a few new ones though she didn't see her srraka blades. Frowning at him he shrugged disappointingly and then tossed everything that didn't belong to the two of them. Slipping on her jacket Xiel still didn't want them knowing she was a Force user just yet so she kept her lightsabers tucked away and grabbed one of the rifles Selic had acquired. Looking at the group as they grabbed their weapons she looked at Aurora. "Your over sized glow stick stays hidden or I remove it and your ability to use it, understood? Grab a weapon and if you can't use that you shouldn't be swinging around that thing anyways."

Turning her attention to the twins and Jerik. "I'm taking point, you,' she said acknowledging Jerik, 'take rear guard. You two are responsible for finding us a way out of here. Given that Selic and Little Jedi Wondergirl here are Force users they'll be useless for the most part until we get them away from the Ysalamari they stay center of the formation."

As Xiel stepped out of the room Mera looked at Ranion and mocked the way the woman walked. Ranion leaned in and smiled, "I still hope she swings my way."

"She's a frelling Xennie, they're all insane why would you want to be alone with that?" Mera's question was met with a blank stare by Ranion for a moment and then he shrugged.

"I like to live dangerously it adds to my roguish features and daring reputation," Ranion's smile became so wide it made his face look out of proportion.

Selic grabbed Aurora by the hand and motioned for the other two to get out. Xiel was already twenty paces ahead of them when they finally started to move. Ranion looked at Selic who seemed focused on the floor in front of them rather intently. "So, which way does she swing?"

Selic raised an eyebrow and kept moving forward keeping an eye on Aurora to make sure the Ysalamari weren't making her too sick. Raising his rifle to cover Xiel as she cleared a room he answered Ranion. "That depends, what do you have that she would want? Last I checked your sister had the better body, I have the better fighting skills and looks and even three eyes has something on you, he has three eyes."

Smiling Selic moved his rifle and swapped walls motioning for Mera to enter the next room.

Mera afforded herself a toss of her hair. “I do have the better body.” She said, as her grip on the weapon tightened. Though she wasn’t sure who exactly she’d liberated this heavy scatter gun from, she was very glad that she had it. Imperials had armor and a lot of firepower. They had no idea what they could run into and so having anything that could cause some serious harm was a good thing.

Ranion reached out and pressed the button on the door, before stepping back quickly as Mera surged forward. The room was clear, totally empty except for a few computer terminals.

“I can hack it.” Ranion said and took a step forward but found himself being shoved to the side by Aurora.

“Trust me, I’m better.” She said and stepped up to one of the terminals. Everyone else followed into the room, and they shut the door. It was better to work with a map of things.

“So a Keral and a Soul Diamond.” Mera said, looking at Selic. “Interesting things to be going after.”

“I’m amazed you heard that, what with all the people trying to kill you.” Selic replied with a small humorous smile.

She affected a look of pain. “Oh honey, you’re talking about pretty shiny things. I hear it when people talk about those, trust me.”

“One of which is a dead person in jewel form.” Ranion said, with a finger in the air. “Just figured I’d point that out.”

“What about them?” Selic asked.

“Nothing, making small talk, I can’t do that?” She asked rhetorically, before looking over at Aurora. “Waiting on you, half pint.”

ooc we will have to retcon the guns stuff, but I think this makes some more sense

Talis sat impatiently in the small interview room. It was the same room he had been in for the last three hours, completely unaware of what was happening with his targets.

He'd spoken to a Corporal, then a Captain and finally a Colonel. All had spit the same jurisdiction bullshit at him and he was getting tired of it. All three were ISB, and seemed competent enough but within a small unit on a planet like this, having a number of people on the take wouldn't have been a surprise. But to get to a Colonel? That means this went high. They could have been allied with the Moffs, or be taking money from some kind of local faction that had an interest in this group.

The only thing that gave him any sort of comfort was the secure call he was allowed to make on his comm unit to his colleagues in Imperial Intelligence. He had gotten his acknowledgement code back, but there was no way to know how long it would take them to get here to pick up him and his prisoners. Perhaps that time was all Colonel Tumbuck needed to do what he needed to do.

With every minute that passed it was becoming clearer that something wasn't right here, and Talis was out of patience. Standing up, Talis walked over to the door and opened it, only to be greeted by a pair of guards who blocked his way.

Awfully cautious with a fellow Imperial...

"Sir, we need you to stay here, there's a lot of activity here and we wouldn't want your identity compromised."

More nonsense...

"I need to hit the head. Or I can take a leak right here." Talis said. "I'm sure Tumbuck would love that. Probably make you two lick it up." Talis was playing his rank now, even without bringing it up.

The two men shared a glance before stepping aside. "Down the hall." One motioned with his head.

Talis nodded with a fake, over-exaggerated smile. "Thank you."

Walking past the two, the one guard's security pass slid into his pocket. Pick pocketing was one of the first pieces of tradecraft taught at the academy. Going down the hall, it wasn't hard to hear the footsteps of one of the guards behind him. He walked into the bathroom and waited a moment before slamming the stall door and grunting with pain.

"You alright?" He heard the guard outside.

"I could use a hand." Talis answered as he slid behind the door, which pushed open into the bathroom. A moment later the guard was in a choke hold, and slowly slid to sleep on the floor of the bathroom. Talis dragged him into the stall, clipped the stolen badge on, slid the guard's blaster and datapad into his belt and walked back into the hall. Turning quickly away from his cell, he made his way to lockup.

When he got there it was nearly complete chaos. Men were scrambling everywhere, and he could see on the security monitors that somehow the suspects had made their way out of their cell and were making their way out of the holding area. A trio of guards rushed ahead of him and towards one of the sealed doors that led to the cell block. One supervisor was left in the control center, ordering more men to be scrambled to the area from other parts of the compound. He had a few minutes.

"You need to stop them." Talis said, walking towards the man, who didn't even lookup from the security monitor when he answered.

"They aren't going anywhere."

"That's where you're wrong."

The man turned when he felt the cold muzzle of Talis' blaster on his neck. The blue stun beam send his head onto his console with bang.

"They're coming with me." Talis glanced up to the security monitor and watched as the three armed guards were positioning themselves to breach the holding area. The other thing he noticed were the Ysalimiri... they didn't belong here, not at a small security station like this.

No time...

Talis turned to leave the room when he saw the group's weapons, including his own, thrown haphazardly into a shoulder bag in the corner of the room. Even his Imperial credentials were in there.

I was never walking out of here with any of them.

Talis slid the bag over his shoulder, removing his items, including his hand held blaster. He ran out of the control center and around the corner to where the three guards in near full body armor were about to move in to confront the escaping prisoners. They turned at the sounds of his boots. He held up both blasters, pointing them to the ceiling.

"I'm your reinforcements for now, more are coming." Talis said.

They sneered at him. "Way to come prepared."

Talis shrugged. "You want the help or not? You saw what they did at the bar?"

He got no answer, only the demo expert and his two assault troopers turning back to the door. When they did, Talis lowered his blasters taking aim at the small crease between the chestplates and helmets of the guards. One stun blast from each blaster took down the two assault troopers. By the time the demo officer turned, both blasters were pointed in his direction. He was down before he could do as much as blink.

Talis stepped over the three men and looked at the small shape charge on the door.

"Nicely done." Talis said to himself, pushing the button. After a two second delay, the lock blew and the door flew open. As the smoke cleared, Talis was face to face with a group that wasn't very happy to see him, especially with blasters pointing in their direction.

"Not happy to see me?" Talis asked. He holstered his two blasters and threw the bag of gear at the group. "Get your stuff. The way out is over there." Talis pointed to the far wall, and picked up one of the other shape charges that had been with the demo expert.

"We only have about two minutes before about two dozen very skilled and armored troops get here." Talis walked past the group who was reassembling their gear, especially the Gran who seemed to have a full arsenal of weapons fit for a squadron with him. Only the former Imperial Knight looked confused when she couldn't her lightsaber.

"Sorry, Imperial property dear." Talis held it up as he placed the charge on the wall. "This will take us to the sewers. It will smell, but it will get us to the spaceport, where I can bypass the holds on all of your ships. Questions?"

He didn't give anyone a chance to answer before blowing the charge, and creating a man sized hole in the wall.

"Let's go. Twins first. It will give the rest of you incentive to follow." Talis pointed the way.

The next set of events happened in the blink of an eye, but all Jerik cared about was that he was free. He also didn't mind taking orders as long as he would keep watching the twins. He would deal with the jewel thieves later. One thing at a time."

As the group began to make their way out of the holding area... the door blew inwards. It was the Imperial from the bar that stood there like some kind of spy out of a holodrama. Jerik had all his weapons and gear back. He was fully equipped. He was happy.

"I hope you don't mind getting a little dirty." Jerik grinned, shifting his eyes and slapping the twins on the back. Time to go diving kids!"

"The goal of war is not to die for your country, it's to make the other bastard die for his." General George S. Patton

"Stop!" Ranion yelled out over all the confusion, not to mention a Imperial blaster bolt that zinged over his shoulder, to which he reacted as if nothing had happened.

"Ranion, we don't have time..." Mera began, and then she saw the glazed over look in his eyes and recognized it immediately. It was the look he got when he was 'in the zone', and usually when he performed some incredibly stupid maneuver in the Array that defied logic, or just plain common sense.

Aurora and Xiel also would recognize the look, the deep almost reflective stare, which to a normal person they would take it as a form of mental retardation, but to Aurora and the Xen-Chi, Ranion was in a moment of being touched with the Force, and again to a normal person who would call it a 'moment of clarity'.

The moment lasted only a few ticks of the clock, but with blaster bolts zinging by, Ziel stepped forward, her light saber activating with snap-hiss of energy, and blocked several shots that came within inches of hitting the seemingly thunder-struck Ranion. But as suddenly as he fell into the moment, his eyes suddenly blinked.

"What the hell are to two doing?" Ranion gaped at the two, and then looked at the rest of the ragtag group in shocked irritation. "We can't stand here in the corridor and wait for the Imperials to roll out he Tea Cart and serve us a refreshing cup to settle our nerves!"

"There are too many Moffs and not enough Stormtroopers in our little group. Xiel, Selic, Jerik your with me. We can't leave the Falcon here, for more reason than I have time to explain. Mera, Aurora, Captain Imperial Man, or whoever you are, you all need to get to the Array.

"But my ship is..." Jerik started

"Your ship is near the Falcon's dock. Aurora will be able to de-activate the lock-downs on all our ships at the junction at J12 where there is a Data Junction box." Ranion paused for a second a perplexed look on his face.. "How the blazes did I know that?"

"It doesn't matter, the fact is you're right." Talis interjected. "My ship is near there as well. By now the base has scrambled their TIE squadrons, and the Star Destroyers stationed here will be on there way to intercept. Thankfully they don't have any Interdictors here."

Mera looked at her brother with something akin to amazement and concern at his sudden turn. Sure, she had seen these moments before many times, but this was different. "Then were going to have to fight our way out of orbit and get to our escape vector to jump out. I'll start the calculations for the jump and send the coordinates to everyone once they come in."

“How often do these spur of the moment plans of yours work?” Jerik asked, as they moved down the corridor.

“I could lie and tell you none of the time.” Mera said. “Or, I could tell you the truth and tell you all of the time.” She said with a big smile.

“That's just...probability wise..." Talis said, shaking his head. "There’s no way that’s the truth.” Talis said with a bemused smile on his face at Mera’s words. The disbelief was palpable and many of the others appeared to be harboring the same feelings, save for Ranion, who totally understood and agreed with Mera.

She sighed, and gave a mild pout. “I just told you that I’m telling you the truth. Obviously, if I tell you I'm telling you the truth, I'm telling you the truth. That just means you don't trust us.”

“What, you don’t trust us?” Ranion asked the group.

“No.” Selic, Talis, Jerik, Aurora, and Xiel said at the same time.

“That hurts. Right…Right in here.” Mera said, indicating her heart. “Alright, team, break.” She said, as the two groups split up and started going their separate ways.

They came around a corner and saw the hangar bay down below. There, resplendent in all of her beauty, was the Idiot’s Array. One of the hottest smoking ships in the entire galaxy, in Mera’s opinion. She was surrounded by admirers, that happened to be carrying blasters and definitely looked out of place in an Imperial base and impound.

“It’s the mercenaries from before.” Aurora said, pointing.

“Any chance you can use some of that voodoo?” Mera asked. “It’d be much obliged, because Captain Imperial Man can’t flash that flashy badge of his.”

"No, but I can do this." Talis said, approaching one of the consoles. "Three eyes, cover me."

"Just make sure you unlock my ship."

"The entire space station is on lockdown." Talis said. "Luckily, we program some back doors for some of the less than official business we have to do, even on Imperial worlds. I need a minute, and then we'll have about five to get out of here, and another two before we have a couple of wings of TIE fighters and a pair of Star Destroyers on our tails."

"You'll pay for that later." Jerik said, unleashing a volley of bolts at the mercenaries.

"Or we can stay here a little longer, invite some more friends to the party." Talis added.

"Welcome aboard Captain sir saluting sir." Mera said.

The sounds of boots clanging out of their sewer tunnel were so loud they could even be heard over the blaster fire. Jerik turned towards the for now empty portal. "Everyone might want to cover their ears." He slid a small launcher off of his back and fired two volleys into the tunnel before hitting a switch on the weapon and firing one more.

Two explosions echoed loudly from the sewers and then some smoke. "You have your minutes imp." Jerik said, turning towards the approaching the mercenaries, and unleashing more blaster fire.

"My thanks." Talis said, before hitting one more key, opening the handful of hangar doors they needed access to. "Get to your ships. I've sent rendezvous coordinates to all the vessels. If we separate, that's where we meet."

"So you can send us to an Imperial prison? No thanks." Mera said.

"If I wanted you in an Imperial prison I wouldn't have gotten you out of the last one. Go!" Talis took out his blaster pistol and added to the cover fire, as the party began to split...

ooc just trying to move us along - coordinates are for a small abandoned pirate base on the outskirts of a dormant asteroid field.

"The goal of war is not to die for your country, it's to make the other bastard die for his." General George S. Patton

Mera rushed out into the hangar, making a mad dash for her ship. She had to get onboard and get the preflight checks going. That was the most important part, because if they could get the Array's big guns going, then it didn't matter who they were up against, they'd be able to fight their way out of the hangar. It meant that she had to trust the rest of the people in her team that they would have her back while she made the almost hundred yard sprint towards the ship. Luckily for her, she had someone who was kind of a Jedi but kind of not on her team. Aurora used the Force as she followed, calling forward multiple waves of Force energy that knocked down stormtroopers. Meanwhile, Talis had his blasters and he was firing at everything that looked Imperial.

As she ran forward, Mera saw that she was going to run into a roadblock. A rather large roadblock in the form of a more muscular stormtrooper who was carrying an E-Web with him, and looking for a place to set it up. This was not good. She couldn't let that E-Web get set up, and the stormtrooper was in the most direct path to the Array. At the same time, she didn't want to slow down for anything.

She was really glad that Ranion wasn't here to see this. When they had been growing up, she had taken a number of ballerina classes, before a lot of the girly things had been stomped out by the life that she and her twin had chosen to lead. Coupled with the small amount of fighting that she had under her belt, and Mera was fairly accomplished at dancing around opponents. It was just unfortunate that a lot of the time, more like the majority of the time, she and Ranion decided to fight against opponents who were so much bigger than they were.

Like this.

As she reached the stormtrooper, Mera jumped up into the air, aiming for his head. Grabbing his neck in her hands, she used the momentum that she had built up to vault herself over him and keep moving behind him. But the motion also forced the stormtrooper backwards, knocking him. There was no actual damage done and he rolled over from his back to his stomach to see her land on her feet and keep running. By the time he was getting up, she was already running up the boarding ramp of her ship. Mera moved through the hallways of the ship with a comforted ease. This was her ship after all, and she quickly found herself in the cockpit of the ship.

Throwing the switches, she started warming up the reactors, so she could shunt what energy she had, into the guns.

Not having a lightsaber was something Aurora had gotten sort of used to in her years in self imposed exile. Something as flashy as a laser sword tended to draw a lot of attention and since she had been hiding from the Imperials at the time she preferred not to draw any attention at all. Still, in those few short years she rarely found herself in a combat situation that would warrant the use of a lightsaber, much like the one she found herself in now. So as they ran the hundred yards of open space between them and the ship she found herself seriously regretting not taking her lightsaber from the Imperial by Force... Not that she was entirely convinced that she could. Instead she relied more heavily on the Force which, combined with the fact that they were running at the time, was seriously sapping her reserves of energy.

She had just climbed to the top of the boarding ramp when she finally collapsed from exhaustion. Someone ran by and forcefully pulled her to her feet thought Aurora was too tired to tilt her head to see who. Her benefactor pulled her through the ship's corridors with her feet dragging behind her until finally she had been deposited, albeit a bit roughly, on one of the couches in the ship's lounge. She was dropped onto her side and got a good look of the Xen'Chi's back as the woman retreated from the room, presumably to man one of the ship's cannons. Aurora wanted to be doing the same but at this point she could barely muster the energy to stand her body felt so weak.

With nothing else better to do she closed her eyes, but the adrenaline pumping through her system was keeping her firmly awake. Instead she tried to use the Force to help her recuperate, a technique she wasn't exactly all that experienced with. At some point she must have lost focus because for a moment an image flashed through her mind of herself in a brightly lit room surrounded by men wearing lab coats. Finally, one of them stabbed something into her and her eyes flew open in a heartbeat.

"What was that?" She muttered under her breath only to be answered by the relative silence of the lounge...

Ranion and his group ran up the ramp of the Millennium Falcon, Ranion immediately running to the cockpit while yelling over his shoulder. "Imp Man, you're with me in the cockpit, Xiel take the Dorsal guns, Selic you're on the Ventral guns."

Smashing startup buttons the moment the cockpit doors opened, Ranion literally leapt into the pilot's seat, giving the console the once over, his eyes spied a familiar panel, one he wished he had on the Array. "Well I'll be damn. I knew the guy was a genius smuggler, but not many smuggler ships have one of these." He hit a series of buttons and the Falcon's engines came humming to life, along with every system that was needed to make a fast get away. "Fast Start systems are the greatest. Being married to the Chief of State has it's perks I guess."

"Among other things, I'm sure." Talis stated as he snapped into the co-pilot's chair.

Ranion looked up through the upper section of the cockpit windows and noticed that the upper bay door still had not opened to allow them to escape. "I thought you said they would be opened?" Ranion turned to Talis.

"Well, I guess the Imperial's on the base aren't as lack in discipline as I first thought. They must have been a bit quicker than I anticipated on locking down the bay door. Give me a moment and I can..."

"No time for that." Ranion leaned over and flipped on the intercom system. "Xiel, pop the dorsal cannons straight up and blast those doors apart!"

Just then the speaker on the center console chirped and a foot high holo-graphic image of a easily recognizable, and obviously angry Han Solo appeared on the round emitter on the console. "Why you miserable little snot-nosed, Bantha poodoo sniffing punks have gone too far this time! I'm going to put a bounty on you two so large, that every Bounty Hunter in the galaxy is going to be after you!" In the background Ranion could hear the roar of Chewbacca screaming his agreement.

"Too late Nerfherders. The way things have been going, I think there already is one." Ranion quipped back.

"Listen you little brat, if there is so much as a single scratch on my ship when..."

The upper Quad-Gun took that moment to go off. The powerful beams shattered bay doors above the Falcon, causing large and small chucks of metal and permacrete to rain down on the outer hull of the ship, creating a almost deafing sycophancy of noise inside the ship.

Ranion squinted his eyes with each clang of heavy debris that hit the hull, and slowly he opened one eye and dared himself to look at the holographic image of Solo. Solo's mouth had formed a thin line, and his eyes looked ready to blast him with the power of the Death Star's Super Laser.

"I'm going to put you in a hole so deep, even a Sarlacc won't be able to find you. I don't care if you two Obrasi Monkeys are my.." Solo wasn't able finish as Ranion slapped the cutoff.

"He sounds a little miffed." Talis mentioned a bit too nonchalantly, to not be humored by the situation.

Ranion just turned his head to look at Talis. "Duh...do ya think?" He slammed a palm on the system and the Falcon lifted out of the destroyed domed bay doors and hovered while he waited to see if the rest of the group was going to liftoff anytime soon.

Keying the comm system. "Umm Sis, ya might wanna stop having the community sing and get your asses spaced out. We got 'alot' of company coming, and I'm all out of party favors."

Sliding into the gun turret Xiel did as she was told but kept herself quiet. They would underestimate her given she had yet to reveal she was a Chosen. A fully trained one at that. A normal warrior was fine for her but to those around her it changed everything about how they would view her. She would wait till the time was right to reveal her secret but now taking orders fit just fine. Pulling the trigger she blew the doors above the ship and linked herself into the private secure comm with Selic that would stay between the two of them. "You know they never asked if we had a ship."

Selic smirked to himself and powered on his gun. "Yeah, I know. Seems they don't respect us."

"No,' Xiel stated. "they fear me but they definitely don't respect us. Maybe we need to make ourselves a bit more useful."

"Or, maybe we need to stay useless beyond our helping when asked." Selic's voice was full of sarcasm but still held a hint of agreement.

Xiel flipped over to the open comm after a moment of thought. "So, since you all decided to cause a visual incident when exactly do we start getting paid as hired protection? My skills are being wasted by babysitting."

Selic cringed but knew Xiel was going to apply herself however the job required it. "I must agree. You did decide for us that we were going to leave our ship behind. All we asked for was two gems and now were doing guard duty on the Millenium Falcon. I think we should know what we're doing don't you Xiel?"

"I think so yes,' Xiel's voice took on an unsual hint of amusement. "I think my gun is malfunctioning all of the sudden what about yours?"

Selic laughed. "Yeah, mine is offline or maybe...yeah actually it's about to fire unexpectedly at a comm antenna on the belly."

Xiel's black teeth shown through her lips and she was actually enjoying herself for once. "This sensor dish looks nice as well."

Xiel pulled the trigger on the quad cannon and singed the dish enough to cause a sensor alarm to go off in the cockpit. She knew that they were acting like they were playing around but it was cover for something that would earn them the respect they actually needed to be held in. She turned to look at Selic and he continued the charade a bit longer. As far as anyone in either ship knew the two were simply being a pain in the ass, the rest would take care of itself soon enough.

“As it so happens, Ranion dear, I did pay attention when mother taught us to never show up to a party empty handed. You should have listened more.” Mera said.

“You found the Whyren’s Reserve?” He asked, his voice getting hopeful and totally forgetting everything that was going on around them.

“No. I have not found that bottle from the Clone Wars that we hid away so we could save it for a special day and then forgot where we put it.” Mera said. “But I did find the torpedo launcher button thing.”

Two Proton Torpedoes shot forward from the Array, as the ship lifted up off the ground. The explosions, and the holes punched in one of the walls, were enough to cause a suitable distraction from the ground forces that gave Mera the time to get the ship out and up into the air. Engines glowed a blue as bright as the sky as the Array leapt up towards the atmosphere and then broke it into open space, the Falcon a bit behind her.

“Alright, so we’re clear.” Mera said into the communications device. “Let me know when you’re ready to…” She said and then she trailed off.

Multiple signatures were arriving through hyperspace. Multiple.

A small flotilla of ships arrived in system. There was a mix of various Imperial types, but she stared at the familiar dagger shape that dwarfed them all. An Imperial-class Star Destroyer had arrived, and her screen told her that it was the Mark II variant. This wasn’t good. A single Star Destroyer could, when properly used, subjugate a system with that much firepower.

Ranion was in his space. An odd quirk of a smile on his lips formed as he stood the Falcon on it's side in a jinxing move against the TIE Fighters that were on his tail. The move gave the Dorsal gunner a picture perfect angle to fire upon them, as Xiel caught the moment and managed to rake the first TIE cockpit with her guns and reducing it to first molten slag, which immediately hardened in the cold of space.

Talis worked the shield controls, while trying to manage staying in his seat from Ranion's violent maneuvers that the ship's inertial dampers were barely able to keep up with. His eyes widened as he noticed that Ranion now took a heading that would spear them into the middle of six TIEs that were angling in on a intercept course.

"Um..Ranion..." Talis murmured.

"Yeah, yeah...I see them." Ranion replied his concentration on the incoming enemy ships.

"Well then, you might want to change course."

"Naw. If there is one thing that Imperial pilots hate is playing chicken."

Talis sighed and put all the reserve power into the forward shields. Green energy splashed against the surprisingly power shields and Ranion corkscrewed the Falcon in and through the group of TIEs, giving both top and bottom guns a chance at a score on them.

Talis looked out the viewports as they passed through the ships by mere meters . "I swear, that TIE pilot's eyes were green."

"Really? I thought they were more Hazel than green." Ranion smirked back.

Ranion glanced out the viewport at the quickly closing Star Destroyer, and made a quick computation in his head, and then hit the linked com channel to the other ships.

"Sis, I think we've outstayed our welcome, time for a Blitz."

--"You're crazy...but that really isn't news."--

"Everyone head to these coordinates, and I'm sending the hyper-drive vector to feed into your Nav Computers. Once we form up, you guys stay on my tail and jump on my mark."

Talis looked at the coordinates and slowly turned his head with a high raised eyebrow. "You're joking....right?"

Ranion looked at Talis, his quirky smile on his lips. "Do I look like I'm joking?"

"You know, I really can't tell. You're either the best pilot I've ever flown with, or you're the craziest son of a Hutt in the galaxy."

--"I'd lean towards the latter option Impy Man.--" Mera stated over the com speaker that was still open.

Ranion gave a sort of half-hearted nod at Mera's opinion. "She might be right."

All the ships of their ragtag group formed up in a V formation, and all three ships engines suddenly flared as full power leapt them forward straight towards the underside of the Imperial Star Destroyer, the turbo batteries of the gigantic ship tried in vain to score some hits on the small fast moving ships, but none of the gunners could get a bead on them as they skimmed just several meters from the giant hull of the gleaming white ship.

Just as the ships were about to pass under the enormous engine cowls of the Star Destroyer, which if their ships were to enter the fiery blue engine blasts they would be reduced to slag in seconds Ranion screamed into his comm. "NOW!"

All ship suddenly leapt into hyper-space, the hyper-tail of their entrance pulled the engine exhaust of the Star Destroyer into the hyperspace opening with them creating a spectacular prismatic trail that if this were a more joyous occasion, would have caused many 'oooo's' and awes.

The E-Wing reverted from hyperspace. The pilot’s eyes scanned the system, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was an Imperial system. He’d had more than a sneaking suspicion after he’d entered hyperspace. After all, he’d known the vector of the coordinates. But there had been an off chance that the system wouldn’t be Imperial. Now he knew that that wasn’t the case. It meant that an E-Wing fighter was not something that you saw on a regular basis. He stuck out like a sore thumb, and that was putting it lightly, without some more colloquial euphemism. His legs were killing him, thanks to the small cockpit of the E-wing, and he wanted to know what was going on.

Whoever these people were, they’d stolen something serious from the New Republic, and their flagrant breaking of the rules was something else entirely.

But in order to catch them, he was going to have to be careful not to singlehandedly break the uneasy peace treaty between the New Republic and the Empire. Maybe one day that peace treaty would be truly tested, but it wasn’t going to be because he jumped into an Imperial system, that was for sure.

He was contemplating his next move, when his screens lit up, with an incoming message. His R5 unit tootled along with the message, and he started reading it.

Be ready for a party. Stay frosty. – W.

His eyes narrowed. This was apparently the same person who had sent him these coordinates in the first place. How could he trust the person when now, he had been sent to an Imperial system, in a clearly marked NR ship. He was staying on the outskirts of the system, far from any sensors, to avoid detection. Reaching out, he pressed a button on one of the control panels, and a small rectangle appeared from a compartment. Taking it, he took the foil wrapper off of the ration bar, and took a healthy bite.

One thing was for sure, making the food palatable was definitively not on the Combined Defense Forces of the New Republic’s list of important things to do.

Making a face, he listened as chatter over the trans frequencies started to pick up. When he heard descriptions of two ships that matched the Idiot’s Array, and the Millenium Falcon, he knew that he was in the right place. Tossing the ration bar to the side, he fired up his engines, and slammed the controls forward.

As he did, his jaw dropped.

A flotilla of Imperial ships had arrived in system, and ion cannons were opening up all over the place. It was as if they had either been really close and able to respond in such a timely manner, or they had already known. There was no way that a quick response force would be able to get to the system that fast. But that only became unrealistic, if they were here for the two freighters. He was too far away to see what they were shooting at, but he was willing to bet, peanuts rookie pay though it might have been, a month’s pay that it was the two freighters.

Something was up though. They weren’t fighting like regular Imperials. It was coordinated, but the interdiction efforts were too loose to be Imperial. Pressing a button, he started pulling all the information that he could on the Imperial ships, as he got closer and closer. Then he saw the two freighters, and watched as they shot into hyperspace.

Well, that’s not good.

He watched as warnings went off all around him. The Imperials were turning towards him.

Just as he was praying for his guardian angel, a new string of text and numbers came in from “W”. New coordinates, which was exactly what he needed.